Pipe Leak in Arkansas

There was concern about a leaking pipe due to the reduction in water depth of a pond located at a senior living center. Benefits to the customer were, specialized expertise in data processing, rapid turn-around time, reduced cost of deliverable preparation, and higher order data analytics unattainable with their data acquisition software.

Date: December 1, 2019

Client: Arkansas GPR

Project Type: Pipe leak

About this Project

Bigman Geophysical was hired to rapidly process, interpret, and visualize locations of possible pipes and leak plumes. The Ridgemere Pond was loosing large amounts of water daily. The client, who had been trained by Bigman Geophysical at one of our NULCA Accredited GPR Bootcamps for Utility Locating, was asked to identify the possible locations of pipes and utilities running into and along the pond edge.

The client was able to identify the likely locations while collecting data in the field. Then, once the locations were found, they conducted a systematic grid survey so Bigman Geophysical could process data with spatial reference. Processed time-slices confirmed the clients suspected locations of pipes and utilities. Bigman Geophysical used GPR-Slice to generate a frequency distribution plot indicating the areas most likely to be saturated with leaking water since the saturated areas would absorb the higher GPR antenna frequency signals faster than lower frequency signals. The frequency plot visualized the probable plume from the leaking pipe. All visuals were delivered to our client so they could edit/forward on to their customer. Data plots turned around in less than 4 hours.

Finally, the client confirmed the suspected leak with additional methods including CPT testing to record information on soil compaction and sleeve resistance.

Red lines in the image above indicate locations of pipes, while the black line indicates the outline of the highest amplitudes from the lowest recorded frequencies and most likely location of the plume.